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Biography
Infobox person| name = Carol Channing| image = Carol Channing.jpg| imagesize =| caption = Carol Channing (in October 2009)| birth_name = Carol Elaine Channing| birth_date = Birth date and age|1921|1|31| birth_place = Seattle, Washington , U.S.| occupation = Actress/Singer/Comedienne| years_active = 1941present| spouse = Theodore Naidish (divorced) Alexander Carson (195356; divorced); 1 son Charles Lowe (195699; his death) Harry Kullijian (2003-11; his death) Carol Elaine Channing (born January 31, 1921) http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.jsp? spid=32144 "Carol Channing biography" tcm.com. Retrieved August 17, 2010. is an American singing|singer , actress , and comedienne . She is the recipient of three Tony Award s (including one for lifetime achievement), a Golden Globe and an Academy Award|Oscar nomination. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway theatre|Broadway , the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , and matchmaking widow DollyGallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly& #33; (musical)|Hello, Dolly!
Childhood and education
Channing was born in Seattle, Washington , the only child of George and Adelaide (nιe Glaser; 18861984) Channing.Carol Channing, Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts , Waterville, Maine: 2003, pg. 50 Her father was a city editor at the Seattle Star ; his newspaper career took the family to San Francisco when Carol was only two weeks old. Her father later became a successful Christian Science practitioner, editor, and teacher. She attended Aptos Middle School and Lowell High School (San Francisco)|Lowell High School in San Francisco . At Lowell, Channing was a member of its famed Lowell Forensic Society , the nation's oldest high-school debate team.
According to Channing's memoirs, when she left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont , her mother informed her that her father, a journalist who Carol had believed was born in Rhode Island , had in fact been born in Augusta, Georgia , to a German-American father and an African American|African-American mother. According to Channing's account, her mother reportedly did not want Channing to be surprised "if she had a black baby".cite news|url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_20_102/ai_93974696|accessdate=April 21, 2008|title=Carol Channing reveals her father was Black|date=November 4, 2002|publisher=Jetcite news|url= http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0211/27/lkl.00.html|work=CNN|title=CNN.com Channing kept this a secret to avoid any problems on Broadway and in Cinema of the United States|Hollywood , ultimately revealing it only in her autobiography, Just Lucky I Guess (published in 2002). Her autobiography, contains a photograph of her mother but has no photos of her father or son. http://cartoonbox.slate.com/chanlowe/ Cartoonbox.slate.com The book states her father's birth certificate was destroyed in a fire.The November 4, 2002 issue of Jet (magazine)| Jet magazine reported, based on her autobiography, that Channing's father was African-American.
Career
Channing was introduced to the stage while working for her mother. In a 2005 interview with the Austin Chronicle, Channing recounted this experience:
"My mother said, 'Carol, would you like to help me distribute Christian Science Monitor s backstage at the live theatres in San Francisco ? ' And I said, 'All right, I'll help you.' I don't know how old I was. I must have been little. We went through the stage door alley (for the Curran Theatre ), and I couldn't get the stage door open. My mother came and opened it very well. Anyway, my mother went to put the Monitors where they were supposed to go for the actors and the crew and the musicians, and she left me alone. And I stood there and realized I'll never forget it because it came over me so strongly that this is a temple. This is a cathedral. It's a mosque. It's a mother church. This is for people who have gotten a glimpse of creation and all they do is recreate it. I stood there and wanted to kiss the floorboards."cite web|title= Faires, Robert "The Carol You Don't Know, Austin Chronicle (July 22, 2005) Online Edition|url= http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-07-22/arts_feature.html|accessdate=May 10, 2006
Channing's first job on stage in New York was in Marc Blitzstein 's No For an Answer, which was given two special Sunday performances starting January 5, 1941 at the Mecca Temple (later New York's City Center). She was 19 years old. Channing then moved to Broadway for '' Let's Face It! , in which she was an understudy for Eve Arden . Decades later, Arden would play "Dolly" in a road company after Channing finally relinquished the role. Five years later, Channing had a featured role in a revue, Lend an Ear . She was spotted by author Anita Loos and cast in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as Lorelei Lee, the role that brought her to prominence. (Her signature song from the production was Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend .) In 1961, Channing became one of a very few Tony Award nominees to gain a nomination for work in a revue (rather than a traditional book musical), when she was nominated for Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical|Best Actress in a Musical , for the short-lived revue Show Girl . Citation needed|date=November 2010
Channing came to national prominence as the star of Jerry Herman 's Hello, Dolly! She never missed a performance during her run, attributing her good health to her Christian Science faith. Her performance won her the Tony Award for Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical|Best Actress in a Musical , in a year when her chief competition was Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (musical)|Funny Girl . She was deeply disappointed when Streisand, who many believed to be far too young for the role, was signed to play Dolly Levi in the film, which also starred Walter Matthau and Michael Crawford . Citation needed|date=November 2010 Channing reprised the role of Lorelei Lee in the musical Lorelei . She also appeared in two New York revivals of Hello, Dolly! , and toured with it extensively throughout the United States . She also appeared in a number of movies, The First Traveling Sales Lady (1956) with Ginger Rogers , the cult film Skidoo (film)|Skidoo and Thoroughly Modern Millie , opposite Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore . For Millie she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress , and was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture . Citation needed|date=November 2010 In 1966, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre . During her film career she also made some guest appearances on television sitcoms and talk shows, including CBS 's '' What's My Line? on which she appeared in eleven episodes from 1962 to 1966. Channing also did a fair amount of voice over work in cartoons, most notably as Grandmama (The Addams Family)|Grandmama in an animated version of The Addams Family which ran from 1992 to 1995.
Channing was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/theater/26-elected-theater-hall-fame-26-broadway-voted-into-theater-hall-fame.html The New York Times , March 3, 1981 - 26 Elected to the Theater Hall of Fame She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995,cite web|title=Hodgins, Paul, "Carol Channing: A Lifetime of Experience", Orange County Register (February 4, 2006) |url= http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/entertainment/atoz/article_982986.php|accessdate=August 21, 2007 and an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts by California State University, Stanislaus in 2004.cite web|title=Moran, Frankie, "Carol Channing to Offer Highlights From Her Six Decade Career", North County Times (November 8, 2006)|url= http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/14/entertainment/theater/12_00_2611_8_06.txt|accessdate=August 21, 2007 That same year, she received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.cite news|first=Andrew|last=Gans|title=Carol Channing Honored By York Theatre Company|date=May 13, 2004|url= http://www.playbill.com/news/article/86130.html|work=Playbill.com|accessdate=September 21, 2008 She and husband Harry Kullijian (December 27, 1919 December 26, 2011) were active in promoting arts education in California schools with the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation . The couple resided in Modesto, California|Modesto , California.
In 1984, Carol appeared on Sesame Street and sang a parody of the song " Hello, Dolly& #33; (song)|Hello, Dolly! called "Hello, Sammy!", a love song being sung by Carol to a character known as Sammy the Snake (as voiced by Jim Henson ). Carol, in this parody segment, serenades Sammy telling him just how much she loves and adores him while Sammy coils himself around Carol's arms. This song includes lyrics such as "So..turn on your charm, Sammy/Coil yourself around my arm, Sammy/Sammy the Snake, I'll stake a claim on you."
In 2011, a documentary film about Channing, directed by Dori Bernstein, Carol Channing: Larger Than Life , premiered. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/20/entertainment/la-et-capsules-carol-channing-20120120 Documentary film about Carol Channing premieres in January 2011
Family life
Channing has been married four times. Her first husband, Theodore Naidish, was a writer. Her second husband, Alexander Carson, played center for the Ottawa Rough Riders Canadian football team. They had one son, Channing Carson, who took his stepfather's surname and is now a Pulitzer-prize-nominated cartoonist publishing under the name Chan Lowe .cite web|url= http://cartoonbox.slate.com/chanlowe|title=Meet Chan Lowe|publisher=Slate|accessdate=April 21, 2008 In 1956, she married her manager and publicist, Charles Lowe. They remained married for 42& nbsp;years, but she filed for divorce abruptly in 1998. He died before the divorce was finalized. After Lowe's death and until shortly before her fourth marriage, the actress's companion was Roger Denny, an interior decorator.cite news|url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/chronicle/archive/2002/10/24/DD225951.DTL|title=Looking swell: Carol Channing's back in the spotlight with memoir and plans for new show|first=Steven|last=Winn|date=October 24, 2002|publisher=San Francisco Chronicles|accessdate=April 21, 2008
On May 10, 2003, she married Harry Kullijian, her fourth husband and junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir. The two performed at their old junior high school, which had become Aptos Middle School, in a benefit for the school. He died on December 26, 2011, the eve of his 92nd birthday. At Lowell High School (San Francisco)|Lowell High School , they renamed the school's auditorium "The Carol Channing Theatre" in her honor. The city of San Francisco, California , proclaimed February 25, 2002, to be Carol Channing Day, for her advocacy of gay rights and her appearance as the celebrity host of the Gay Pride Day festivities in Hollywood.
Channing is an ovarian cancer survivor. http://www.outinperth.com/index.php/life/ovarian-cancer-the-reality? date=2011-03-13 Carol Channing on her battle with ovarian cancer http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search? q=cache:rYfydYvWI2IJ:www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/2002/10/14/2002-10-14_high-end_handouts_on_the_ges.html+Carol+Channing+cobalt+treatment+for& hl=en& gl=us& strip=1 Excerpt from Channing bio re her battle with ovarian cancer
Works
Theater
No For an Answer (January 5 and January 11, 1941)
'' Let's Face It! (October 29, 1941 March 20, 1943) (understudy for Eve Arden )
Proof Through the Night (December 25, 1942 January 2, 1943)
Lend an Ear (December 16, 1948 January 21, 1950)
Grammy Hall of Fame , Hello, Dolly original cast album
won
References
reflist|2
Further reading
Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sorts by Carol Channing (Simon & Schuster, 2002)
Diary of a Mad Playwright: Perilous Adventures on the Road with Mary Martin and Carol Channing by James Kirkwood, Jr. , about production of the play "Legends" (Dutton, 1989)
External links
http://www.carolchanning.org/ Carol Channing official website
IBDB name|35029
http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/55535/Carol-Channing Carol Channing | PlaybillVault.com
iobdb|Carol|Channing
IMDb name|0151919
http://www.americantheatrewing.org/downstagecenter/detail/carol_channing Carol Channing - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing|American Theatre Wing.org
http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/interactive/video/index.html#c TonyAwards.com Interview with Carol Channing
http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/House-Garden-September-1965-Prints_i8484650_.htm Photo of Carol Channing in 1965 with her son, Chan
GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1961-1980TonyAward MusicalLeadActress 1948-1975 Persondata | NAME = Channing, Carol Elaine | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American actress, singer and musical comedy performer | DATE OF BIRTH = January 31, 1921 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Seattle, Washington , U.S. | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH =
DEFAULTSORT:Channing, Carol Category:1921 births Category:Living people Category:American Christian Scientists Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American musical theatre actors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American voice actors Category:American people of German descent Category:American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees Category:Bennington College alumni Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Cancer survivors Category:RCA Victor artists Category:People from Seattle, Washington Category:People from San Francisco, California Category:Tony Award winners Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors
